US diplomat helped illegal Chinese arms trafficking: report

New York, Jun 25 (PTI) US Congressional investigators
revealed that an American diplomat helped cover up illegal
trafficking of Chinese ammunition by a Pentagon contractor
meant for Afghan soldiers, a media report said Tuesday.

American ambassador to Albania, John L. Withers II agreed
to a proposal from Albanian defence minister Fatmir Mediu to
hide several boxes of ammunition from a visiting reporter
overseeing a Pentagon contractor's operation in Albanian
capital Tirana, investigators said quoting a military attaché
in the country.

Trafficking of Chinese-origin arms and ammunition is
illegal in the US. Despite the prohibition to trade in Chinese
arms, Miami Beach-based arms company, AEY Inc, under an army
contract, bought the ammunition for supply to Afghan security
forces, the report said.

On June 20, AEY Inc's president Efraim E. Diveroli and
three others were charged with selling prohibited Chinese
ammunition to the Pentagon, it added.

The Congressional investigators, in their report, said
military attache Maj. Larry D. Harrison II of the US Army
testified that Chinese ammunition were repackaged to disguise
their origin and shipped from Albania to Afghanistan by the
company, according to the New York Times.

Major Harrison said he was one of the aides attending a
late-night meeting between Withers and Mediu November 19,
2007 "to conspire a plan of hiding the ammunition" from a New
York Times reporter.

During the meeting, the Albanian minister sought the help
of Withers so as to prevent the reporter from accusing him of
profiting from selling the arms, the daily said.

Mediu had argued that "the US owed him something as he had
gone out of his way to help the country", a close ally of
Albania, and Withers should agree to his plan, according to
Major Harrison.

Later, Mediu ordered the commanding general of Albania's
armed forces to remove and repackage all boxes of Chinese
ammunition from a site the reporter was to visit and the
ambassador "agreed that the action would alleviate suspicions
of wrongdoing", the Times said.

Investigators interviewed Major Harrison over the phone
June 9, and the House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee made excerpts of the transcript public Monday,
the daily said.

According to the transcript excerpts released by the
committee and quoted by the Times, Major Harrison told
investigators that he did not agree with the decision to hide
the boxes from the reporter, and said that he felt "very
uncomfortable" during the meeting.

Major Harrison, chief of the embassy's office of defence
cooperation, who was responsible for carrying out American
efforts to train, equip and modernize Albania's military, said
his suggestion to bar the reporter from visiting the Albania
base was rejected.

A senior State Department official, who told the daily
that said he had spoken to Withers Monday, said the ambassador
vehemently denied Major Harrison's statement.

The senior official, who was not identified, said the
committee never interviewed Withers or any other top embassy
personnel, and released the information Monday to fan interest
in a committee hearing on the arms company's business dealings
scheduled for Tuesday.

However, the House committee's chairman, Democrat Henry
A. Waxman, in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
said Monday that there were signs that embassy officials in
Tirana tried to cover up the November meeting once his staff
began an investigation into the arms company, the Times said.

The letter said the committee would seek to interview
Withers and other embassy personnel. PTI